, 1887-05-19

taught to touch elbows, fire gun mount guard
ana dig a ditch, the poor fellow is as far removed
from what the academy claims to create az when
he first began. He Is nothing more nor less than
a drill sergeant As well assert that one must
know how to shoe horse as preliminary to rid
ing as to claim that the drill OF the private IL
necessary TO the making Of an officer; and In the
duties of an officer, as have said, there IL no
science. To march out, find the enemy and fight
him successfully has no rules which can be re-
duced to practice Gen. IIalleck wrote book on
the art OF war which was about as useful In n
campaign as u treatise on infant baptism would
have been, and when Halleck was called upon to
practice what he taught, he initiated, In a feeble
way, the great Napoleon, who conquered Europe
by setting at naught all the wisdom OF the
schools and the famous captain left but one AK
iom as the net purport and result OF all MS cxpe-
rence and that Is of no use to the average grad.
uate, for 1t says: The art Of war is a calculation
of chances
I'm warlike Europe save In England different
system prevails. The war powers have been
thousand years in perfecting the private. Pro
motion from the ranks is kept open under the b.
lief that actual service Is better school to grad
uaee in than any academy, While government
will undertake to make private the creation of
the officer Is left To- the wisdom of God. The Al
mighty il no respecter of rank, and genius crops
out in the most unexpected places. The great
Napoleon claimed for his armies an irresistible
morale, because, he said, every soldier felt that
he carried the baton Of marshal in his knap
posed creation of an officer. When that IL done
We point to the proud creature and say: Behold
our arn"" We have In nncty.nine out OF n hun
dred cases graduated an incompetent. He Ia the
natural result OF n duh plodding nature and a
good memory, and in this our little military insti
tuition does not differ from all other schools and
academies the world over.
"Thc process might be more of n success but for
the fatal defect, lying at the foundation OF being
built on the English system, that has an aristo-
for t.Hl fhas
est terin-for a private. AZ we have no born aris
tocrats the school undertakes to create them. OF
two boys taken from the same family, one may
he trained at West Point into superior being and
the othrr made his dog.
This feature alone would have been fatal to
West Point, in the publicity Il obtained during
the late war, but for the patronage IL affords the
congressman, and We know how dear IL official
patronage 10 the ordinary Solon. What We
need to popularize West Point Is n law ,'guiring
graduate to serve one year asa corporal, one
year ~ sergeant and ,h'n. seasoned snluier.
he should be subject to u competitive examine
tion before being commissioned
Col. Piatts sketch of Abraham Lincoln
brings that eminent figure of national history
down from the deiiic pedestal, where exag.
gerated popular praise has placed him, and
makes him a mortal with ourselves, hut
n mortal Of such splendid intellectual
and moral strength that we admire him
far more than when he was made TO appear
rs god. Piatt pronounceS him the graudest
figure looming up in our history rs n nation
Edwin NJ. Stanton, the great war secretary,
IL depicted as man whose Imagination was
even the larger and most Totcnt quality oi
his mind, and lived in n world SO tinctured by
1t that his thoughts and acts were mysterious
TO the commonplace matter of fact minds
about him.
Generous, genial and impulsve in youth, 10
III, l.. IL ..!.l.
tive, imaginative man passed tn the STERN
vindctiye and often brutal "organizer OF
victory even as the sweetest wine makes
sourest vinegar.
From the charges of injustice Col Piatt
does not attempt to vin,Iicate tho great war
secretary. He believes that Stanton earnestly
desired 70 do his duty To the government, but
that he was without exception, more subject
to personal likes and dislikes, and more vim
dictve in the qualification of his batreds, than
any man ever called to rublic station. Mr.
fiatt says OF this popularity of Stanton;
Nothing but his wonderful ability and grea,
force of character saved him ami his caus. from
utter wreck in this direction. Not only so but 1t
seemed to me hat buth StIuton aud Seward w.r,
drunk with the lust Of power. They fairly rioted
in It's enjoyment. NbII" l.nrriu and Chase wrr-
as pure and simple in tlis - children. with no
such morbid desire to RruHi.s, with no personal
friends 90 favor and cu't.tj.- to- punish Stan.
ton and Sewurd not only rrN|l,-i IN dcsputic
authority, nus stanton u'sd th" fearful power OF
the government to criiSh trnse hc hated white he
sought, through the same nieans, to elevate those
he loved.
In mitigation of all this Col Piatt tells us
| that the heart of the war secretary always
| beat kindly when reached by suffering and
was ever open TO the common soldier. He
SAYS too, that Stantons was the master mind
OF the war.
The chapter OH Salmon T. Chase il Of De
cular interest. describing as il docs some OF
| the financial history of the war, the birth OF
| the gieenback, and contains some reflections
on capital of peculiarly Pattinn order. No
writer Of our day has more decidedly the
quality we call "style' than Col. Piatt. He
may be extremely rash in his assertions some
times but he is always interesting. The fac
/ ulty Of blending the pathetic with the incisiye
the droll with the forcible, is pre- -eminently
| his. OF Salmon +. Chase as secretary of the
| treasury he says: HE proved an eminent
secretary on the fact see demonstrated every
day, and that fact is that man IL tho most
| successful I'm business which he knows the
least about" He regrets that Mr.. Chase was
ever called to other duty than that which he
| last adorned, as he had to an eminent degree
| the judicial mind and temperament
! The chapter OH William II. Seward is In.
!
tlotes which reveal this distinguished states
man as well Us others in "a new light. Mr.
Piatt says:
Ihave no thought of asserting that william H
Seward was at all "A bad man. With no turn for
women and no taste for wine. he neither garnbled
nor stole. He affected a wickedness he did not
feel because such affectation was Ia his estima-
tion good form in a statesman.
In the heart of New York a bronze statue OF
| heroic size has been erected to the memory OF
| New York's greatest statesman. It will darken
| into slow decay az his memory fades into obliv-
| ion, without, probably, one of the busy millions
knowing that for four years nothing stood be-
tween that great commercial center and the utter
| ruin Of u bombardment but the subtle intellect
and patriotic heart of that ON" man. Without .
navy, possessed of no coast Defense our cities on
the sea were ut the mercy of the weakest navs
power Of Europe.
Col Piatts book has excited the critics
They do not approve Of much that he has
said and they are particularly indignant over